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Topic: Friction Turning a Smoke Box Door (Read 670 times)

Hi I thought this would be of interest to you chaps. Friction Turning a Smoke Box door for a 5" Gauge Loco. Basically what I've done is covered the face plate with masking tape and trapped the door up against the face plate using a running centre the friction gives enough drive to enable you to machine across the face.

I just did a large plate like this last week.I cleaned the chuck face and the part well with alcohol, and used double faced tape.After pressing the part against the chuck face with the tailstock for a few minutes, i was able to back the center off to face the first inch or so, then move the center back up against the part and complete the facing. This way you can face the entire part. The tape also helps to prevent slippage so you can use less tailstock pressure to avoid warping thin parts. Scott

Hi Stew, I've used a similar technique but used double sided sticky tape from the Poundshop.

It must be the only thing in the Poundshop that is worth the cost but their tape is incredibly strong and worth 10x the cost. I used it recently to friction turn a 2" dia cylinder cover, although the contact surface area was small I had to force the bond apart with knives to free it